Today marks the anniversary of Willie McCovey’s debut in the major leagues. That event occurred in 1959, 55 years ago!

So, why not feature another sweet card of ‘Stretch’ on this special day?

The card below is from this year’s Topps Archives set. The card design that McCovey is featured in is from the 1989 Topps flagship set.

Have a look:

Thus far, this is my favorite card from the 1989 Topps portion of the Archives release. Many feature non-action, close-up images. While this one does not offer action, it does give us a sense of the size and strength of McCovey as not too many skinny shortstops or second baseman can walk around the field with three pieces of fresh lumber on their shoulders…

1980 HEADLINE: Willie McCovey Homers For The Last Time Of His Major League Career

On this day in 1980, slugger Willie McCovey hit the final home run of his amazing career. Spanning 22 years, McCovey blasted 521 round-trippers during his playing days. His 521 ranks on the all-time list at 18th place in major league history.

The shot, a blast off of Expos’ hurler Scott Sanderson, came in the 4th inning of the ballgame and was the difference in the Giant’s 3-2 win that day.

Topps’ All-Rookie Team means a lot of different things to a lot of different collectors. But, one thing is for certain – If your card is tagged with the All-Rookie Team logo, you did something during your first season in the big leagues to make yourself stand out from the rest.

And for that reason alone, I can totally support a set of cards that picks ‘The Best Of The Best’ from these teams.

In 2014, Topps issued a subset in their Series 1 release that took one player at each position, naming them to the ‘Topps All Rookie Cup Team’.

Representing the catcher is Willie McCovey:

Willie McCovey’s major league debut in 1959 was fantastic. His numbers in 54 games played was enough to draw the attention of major league baseball as he was awarded with the Rookie Of The Year Award.

After thinking about the best way to approach the start of my 1975 Topps Set Build, I settled in on pulling cards from existing player collections I have worked on that really showed no signs of being completed.

So, I started digging. And I only had 1 rule to follow – DO NOT PULL CARDS FROM COMPLETED COLLECTIONS.

And then I got to work. And I did rather well.

While I did not rescue cards of Fergie Jenkins, Billy Williams, Joe Morgan, Ron Santo, or Jim Palmer from my player collections, I did secure a very nice stack of cards to get my set build off and rolling.

In total, I pulled 11 cards. And now I am 1.6% done with the Set!!

Here are the cards that I will begin my journey with:

Card #2 – Lou Brock, 1974 Highlights

Card #50 – Brooks Robinson

Card #150 – Bob Gibson

Card #165 – Steve Carlton

Card #193, 1955 Most Valuable Players

Card #199, 1961 Most Valuable Players

Card #202, 1964 Most Valuable Players

Card #450 – Willie McCovey

Card #540 – Lou Brock

Card #600 – Rod Carew

Card # 640 – Harmon Killebrew

Not a bad start, huh? The cards look great and they are all in pretty sharp condition.